Today's top news highlights:
Deepseek's official website has released the deepseek-v4 API documentation.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Southeast Asia Fraud Center seized $700 million in cryptocurrency.
OpenAI releases next-generation model GPT-5.5
Regulation & Macro
Eight departments, including the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Financial Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Intellectual Property Office, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, jointly issued the "Administrative Measures for Online Marketing of Financial Products," which will take effect on September 30, 2026, to systematically regulate online marketing activities of financial products. The measures clarify that only approved financial institutions and their self-operated platforms and entrusted third-party internet platforms may conduct online marketing of financial products, and prohibit providing online marketing services for illegal financial activities such as illegal fundraising, virtual currency issuance and trading, and illegal foreign exchange margin trading. The measures set forth detailed requirements for the authenticity of marketing content, risk disclosure, algorithmic recommendations, pop-up advertisements, account naming, trademark terminology, cooperation models, and data and personal information protection, and clarify the division of regulatory responsibilities and penalties among financial management departments, cyberspace administration, telecommunications, and market supervision departments.
The Reserve Bank of India is converting approximately $80 billion in welfare spending into digital rupees (e-rupee) through about 10 pilot programs in an effort to reduce subsidy “leakage” and corruption, and to find a clear scenario for a CBDC.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Southeast Asia Fraud Center seized $700 million in cryptocurrency.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI's Fraud Center Task Force announced significant action against Southeast Asian fraud rings, indicting two Chinese men for allegedly managing a fraud operation in Myanmar. Over $700 million in cryptocurrency was seized, and a Telegram channel and 503 fraudulent websites were shut down. The accused, "Huang Xing Saan" and "Jiang Wen Jie," managed the Shunda operation in Min Let Pan, Myanmar, forcing trafficked workers to defraud Americans through fake investment platforms. After the operation was shut down by Myanmar armed forces in November 2025, the two moved to Cambodia to continue operations before being arrested in Thailand. The Task Force also shut down a Telegram recruitment channel with over 6,000 followers that lured people to Cambodia with fake high-paying jobs, forcing them to impersonate JPMorgan Chase customer service representatives, New York police officers, and others to commit fraud. The FBI's Operation Level Up program has identified and notified 8,935 victims of cryptocurrency investment scams, saving them an estimated $563 million.
White House: Trump to speak at a cryptocurrency conference in Florida on Saturday
The White House says Trump will speak at a cryptocurrency conference in Florida on Saturday.
More than 100 US crypto companies jointly urge the Senate to advance the Clarity Act.
More than 100 U.S. crypto companies and industry organizations have sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee, urging formal consideration and legislative advancement of the Clarity Act to establish a federal-level market framework for digital assets. The signatories include Coinbase, Ripple, Circle, Kraken, a16z, and Paradigm, among others. They emphasize that regulatory enforcement alone cannot provide stable rules and warn of the risk of returning to a situation where "regulatory enforcement replaces legislation." The letter outlines six legislative priorities, including clarifying the division of labor between the SEC and CFTC, protecting developers of non-custodial instruments, preserving consumer rewards related to stablecoin payments, simplifying disclosure rules, and using federal standards to avoid fragmented state regulations and prevent capital and job outflows to other jurisdictions with established frameworks.
Project Updates
Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), published an article on the X platform proposing an alternative to the Kelp rescue operation: establishing a depository vault called "DeFi United Eth." This vault would channel Aave's wETH revenue at an annualized interest rate of up to 5%, making the vault's deposit token, AaveETH, tradable, and gradually repaying interest and principal. The vault's capacity would be capped at the worst-case scenario's total shortfall. Zeller stated that Aave has substantial revenue, with Aave DAO and Aave Labs each possessing nine-figure vaults, which could have solved the problem.
Since April 18th, Kelp has been working closely with Aave and its ecosystem partners to advance the recovery plan for rsETH holders. The initial shortfall was 163,200 ETH; Kelp has recovered 40,300 rsETH (approximately 43,000 ETH), and the Arbitrum Security Council has recovered 30,700 ETH, leaving a remaining shortfall of approximately 89,500 ETH. Confirmed public commitments include contributions of 43,500 ETH from Mantle, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, EtherFi, Lido, Golem, and others. Kelp states that rsETH holders are a top priority and will continue to release updates.
Morgan Stanley launches stablecoin reserve portfolio for stablecoin issuers to hold reserves.
Morgan Stanley has launched the Stablecoin Reserves Portfolio, a government money market fund that allows stablecoin issuers to hold reserves under the proposed GENIUS Act.
Deepseek's official website has released the deepseek-v4 API documentation.
The Deepseek official website has launched introductions to the deepseek-v4 interface and models, including deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-pro.
Coinbase adds Wrapped Ronin (WRON) to its listing roadmap
Coinbase adds VIRTUAL, PROS, and KAIO to its listing roadmap
Arbitrum's security council has frozen approximately 30,000 ETH (about $71 million) in funds linked to the KelpDAO attack, sparking a renewed debate within the crypto industry about the meaning of decentralization. Supporters argue that this demonstrates the system is functioning as designed to prevent the theft of tens of millions of dollars, with the security council acting as a last resort and intervening only in extreme circumstances, reflecting a decentralized model authorized by the community rather than completely eliminated.
Cardano's ecosystem NFT marketplace, JPG Store, has announced it will close on May 23.
Cardano's ecosystem NFT marketplace, JPG Store, announced on the X platform that due to its inability to continue operating, both JPG Store and the Comet platform will shut down on May 23. The website will cease service, but the smart contracts will continue to run. NFTs held in self-custodial wallets and the JPG Store contract will remain the property of the users and can be accessed through other aggregation platforms or the Cardano command-line interface. Users using social login wallets must transfer their assets to their self-custodial wallets within 30 days. The platform will remain functional for the final 30 days to assist users with the transition.
OpenAI releases next-generation model GPT-5.5
On April 24th, OpenAI released its next-generation model, GPT-5.5, which the company describes as a new type of intelligence geared towards practical work and intelligent agents. This model focuses on agent programming, knowledge work, and scientific research, and is developed in deep collaboration with NVIDIA. OpenAI posted comparison data with Claude Opus 4.7, Gemini 3.1 Pro, and other models on its blog, stating that it has comprehensively surpassed its competitors.
Investment and financing news
Japanese listed company Metaplanet announced the issuance of its 20th tranche of ordinary bonds, totaling 8 billion yen (approximately US$50 million), which was fully subscribed by EVO FUND. The funds will be used to purchase Bitcoin. These are zero-coupon bonds with a face value of 200 million yen per bond, maturing on April 23, 2027. Holders may redeem them early.
Sooth Labs, an AI startup founded by former Meta employees, is raising approximately $50 million, valuing the company at around $335 million post-money. The funds will be used to build models that can predict the probabilities of geopolitical and market events. The company plans to train its models on large-scale datasets across industries (including client-owned data) and integrate multimodal inputs such as video, audio, and text, providing capital allocation and risk management decision support to institutions in finance, defense, insurance, and real estate. In a demonstration, the Sooth model gave a 16% probability that "the WHO will declare another pandemic before 2028" and a 33% probability that "Anthropic will go public this year."
Opinions & Analysis
Analysis: The Bitcoin trend model has turned bullish; $73,000 is a key watershed.
According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, the preview version of DeepSeek-V4 was launched and open-sourced today, including DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash. According to the official DeepSeek documentation, DeepSeek V4 has validated its fine-grained expert parallel (EP) solution on both NVIDIA GPUs and Huawei Ascend NPUs. Furthermore, the official API page mentions that due to limitations in high-end computing power, the service throughput of the V4-Pro model is currently limited. It is expected that the price of Pro will drop significantly after the Ascend 950 supernode is mass-produced and available in the second half of the year.
ARK Invest: Bitcoin holdings by staunch believers surged 69% in Q1, hitting a new high since 2020.
According to an ARK Invest report, despite a 22% drop in Bitcoin prices in the first quarter, the holdings of "Conviction Buyers" increased from 2.13 million BTC to 3.6 million BTC, a 69% increase and the highest level since 2020.
Important data
Tether: Has cooperated with US law enforcement agencies to freeze over $344 million in USDT.
Tether announced that it has cooperated with the US government to freeze approximately $344 million in USDT held in two addresses. This action was based on intelligence provided by multiple US agencies regarding suspected illegal activities, aiming to prevent further transfer of these funds. Tether stated that it has cooperated with over 340 law enforcement agencies in 65 countries, assisting in more than 2,300 cases, of which over 1,200 are related to the US, resulting in the freezing of over $4.4 billion in assets (of which over $2.1 billion is related to the US).
Riot Platforms deposited another 500 BTC into NYDIG, equivalent to approximately $38.95 million.
